Book "Shtum" Portays profoundly autistic boy

Post Reply New Topic

Shtum is a Yiddish word that means silence. It's also the title of a novel that centers around three generations of men who get thrown together in a small space and can't talk to each other. Jonah, the little boy, has the best reason: He's profoundly autistic and can't speak. The story has a personal resonance for author Jem Lester, who says that while he bears no resemblance to the father in Shtum, Jonah's story has parallels to his own son. "A lot of the behaviors and the feelings that he inspires in the book, Jonah, are very very close to my feelings, because I couldn't really see the point of reinventing an autistic character when I had one so close to home."